When It's Time
by Mahou Mage
Summary: A oneshot. A little scene where Hikaru tells them his secret, I guess...


**I decided to write this because this was one of the few scenes that I really want to see in either the manga or the anime. Other fanfictions are what happens **_**after**_** Hikaru tells his secret, but I want to read what happens when he **_**is telling**_** the secret.**

**Warning: slight yaoi; HikaruxAkira.**

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><p>'I resign,' Touya Kouyo said, whilst at the same time bowing. 'Thank you for the game.'<p>

'Thank you for the game.' Hikaru closed his eyes and put his hands down. There was silence in the room. Then Hikaru let go off a sigh. 'I believe… this is the time to tell you all everything,' Hikaru said as he and Kouyo began cleaning up the Go board.

Akira, who was watching, went "!". 'Everything? What do you mean? Shindou.'

'About me, about Sai, about my Go. Everything,' Hikaru replied, blinking slowly.

As he mentioned the name "Sai", a couple of people in the room gasped. 'I'm sorry, but can people who aren't involved, please leave the room?' And he listed the people that could stay. A couple of people reluctantly got up and left. Since this is a match between _the_ "Touya Meijin" and Shindou Hikaru, there were many who came to watch. They were at the Touya residence. Present were Hikaru, Kouyo, Akira, Waya, Isumi, Ochi, Ogata, Kadowaki, Kuwabara, Kurata, Amano, etc.

Hikaru turned away from the Go board. 'I'm sure this will be hard to believe, but it is the truth…' he began in a serious tone. 'Actually, you probably won't believe me,' he then added in dejected tone.

Akira, worried that Hikaru might not decided to tell him what he'd wanted to know for so long, panicked slightly. 'I… I'll believe you! I'll believe whatever you tell me, Shindou! Tell me everything!' Akira exclaimed, with his hand on his chest.

Hikaru looked at him and smiled gravely. His face was sweating. 'Now, where should I begin…' Hikaru heaved a sigh. 'Sai… is a very important person to me. He was the one who'd lead me to Go. He was my mentor and best friend. Ever since I'd met him 8 years ago…'

'So you _did_ know Sai! Shindou! Let me have a match with him!' Ogata exclaimed.

Hikaru closed his eyes and his eyebrow ceased. 'It's too late. Sai isn't here anymore,' Hikaru said as he forced himself not to cry.

'He's not here…? What do you mean?' Ogata wondered, looking somewhat confused.

'Don't tell me… he's dead?' Waya insensitively asked.

'No. He wasn't even alive to begin with,' Hikaru stated.

'Huh?' Waya wondered, giving Hikaru a look that asks, _what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about?_

'It all began when I'd met him 8 years ago. When my allowance was cut down, I thought that there was something that I could sell from Grandpa's Storage. So I went in. In there, I found a Go Board. Err… let's just say Sai came out of the board. He was a ghost.'

Everyone gave him weird looks. Everyone except for the forever serious Kouyo and Akira. But, for Akira, there was also another reason. He was willing to listen to Hikaru's tale, no matter how silly it may be.

'I'm serious here! Sai's real name is Fujiwara-no-Sai!' Hikaru exclaimed. 'And there's something else. He'd possessed someone else before meeting me. The person that he'd possessed...' Hikaru paused for effect. '…was Hon'inbo Shuusaku.' Hikaru continued, 'Sai had possessed Torajirou –that's Shuusaku's real name- and played Go through him. Basically, he's _the_ Hon'inbo Shuusaku!'

'Well, that explains how you could tell that it wasn't' Shuusaku's handwriting…' Kurata said slowly as he digested the revelation.

Hikaru nodded. 'Sai told me. Anyways, Sai loves Go. So much that he'd managed to convince me to play Go with him. But I didn't know how to play. So I went to a Go Salon so that Sai could play Go with someone who does.' Hikaru turned to look at Akira. 'That was when I'd met you, Touya.' Akira's face was downright serious. He was trying to take in every single word that Hikaru was saying. 'The one who'd played against you that day was Sai, not me. During our third match, I played the second half of the match. That… was my first time playing Go against you.'

Akira clenched his hands. 'That… makes sense…' Then he got up and walked towards the Go Board. 'I still remember that first match well. You said you were a beginner, you still couldn't hold the Go stone properly, and you were around my age. It shocked me to no end, loosing against someone like that so miserably.' As Akira proceeds to replaying the game, Kouyo moved aside for him and the people present moved over to watch.

Everyone except Ochi, who'd already seen this, was speechless. Hikaru laughed. 'Gomen, Touya! It's just bad luck that I'd ran into you then. After that, Sai played Go through me. But I began to get interested in Go as well. So I decided to begin playing Go. Sai teaches me Go every day, and I got better every day. But not wanting other people to misunderstand my abilities like Touya did, I refused to let Sai play through me. And so, I resolved to Internet Go. But then, Touya came on, Sai played against him, Touya got suspicious, and then I decided not to play anymore!' And Hikaru sighed playfully, indicating that it was Akira's fault.

'Oi, Shindou!' Akira exclaimed.

'Well, soon after, I became an insei... And at the New First-Dan Series, Sai was the one playing. Wait, don't get shocked yet. I, fearing that he playing would cause the misunderstanding that had happened with Touya again, at first, would not let him play. But Sai was super persistent. You know when I wouldn't sit down? Sai was sitting on the seat. Can't believe he'd done that. So, seeing that he wanted to verse Touya Meijin so much, I let him play, but with a handicap of 15 by holding back. I guess even someone like Sai couldn't win.'

'That… makes sense…' Akira repeated himself once more.

'After that, I wanted Sai to _really_ play against Touya Kouyo, so I arranged a match with him after learning that he was playing Internet Go.' Hikaru turned to Kouyo. 'That was why Sai couldn't show himself. Sai disappeared soon after that though.' People gasped. 'Remember the time when I'd skipped my matches?' Everyone remembered. 'That was when Sai had disappeared. At first, I went searching for him all the way in Hiroshima. But I couldn't find him, and I finally knew that he was gone for good. I didn't come to any of the matches because I thought that if I did, Sai would disappear. But then Isumi-san came by. After playing Go with him, I realized that Sai was in my Go all along. Knowing that, I went to my matches again.'

Everyone tried to take everything in seriously. None of them had the nerve to say that Hikaru was lying, considering how it fits with all the mysteries and unanswered questions and also because of the serious look on Hikaru's face.

'Saying that, I was very surprised when you'd gotten it right, Touya. When you'd said that "there was another me", I was really happy. Someone else could sense the Sai inside of me,' Hikaru said, smiling.

Akira, embarrassed, looked away. 'It was an easy guess!' he declared.

'Oi, Touya! I don't think so! There were times that I was suspicious, too!' Waya exclaimed.

'So… the first time I'd played against you…' Kadowaki began.

'That was Sai. The second time was me. Sai had already disappeared then. That's why I was glad that I'm not yet as good as Sai,' Hikaru told him.

'I see… if it was really like that, then everything would make sense…' Waya said. '_If_ it _is_ really like that…'

'But it's the truth!' Hikaru exclaimed. 'I swear! Oh, and the reason that Ogata-sensei, Kubawara-sensei, Touya-sensei and Touya were all interested in me was all because of Sai. It was quite troublesome though.' And he laughed. 'But, Sai isn't here anymore. All that's left… is the Go that he'd taught me.'

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><p><strong>At first, I intended to write this as a big story. But my creativity has ended and so it's been turned into a oneshot. =P Should I continued? If yes, I won't just forget about it and put it into the back of my "Fanfictions and Stories" cabinet file organized by modified time. But it's not certain that it <strong>_**will**_** be turned into a story though… Thanks for reading!**


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